The Conversation - 1974 Movie Worth Watching
Added 10/28/2009
Another great movie written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, A suspenseful movie from 1974 which had some great actors/actresses; Gene Hackman, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr to name a few.
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Prequel to Enemy of the State
Added 9/7/2009
Francis Ford Coppola made The Conversation between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. It's not the Godfather but rather a character study that explores the morality of privacy, and for that reason it is as relevant today as when it came out just after Watergate.
A great performance by Gene Hackman, presaging his character (at least the spirit of his character) in 1998's Enemy of the State. There's an interesting early role for Harrison Ford. On the other hand, I didn't much like Cindy Williams or Frederic Forrest in it, but I suppose their characters are unlikable. Plus, what they are saying is the real focus anyway.
Young (or at least immature) viewers probably won't enjoy this movie but that doesn't mean it's not still an undiscovered gem for most. Two commentaries (including one from Coppola) make this seven dollar DVD an easy purchase.
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Compared with "Enemy of the State" "The Conversation" Sucks!
Added 8/22/2009
I saw this movie after seeing "Enemy of The State" (1998). I could see that flick several more times, but could hardly finish seeing "The Conversation" (1974) once.
When I first heard of "The Conversation," I thought, 'How do you make a movie with such a boring title?' I was kind of intrigued by that. It doesn't exactly have the punch of "Enemy of the State," does it?
I also saw the rating by TCM was four stars. I wondered, 'If it's so good, how come I've never heard of it before?' I saw the high rating here on Amazon.com, too, so I decided to give it a look. The professional and amateur critics both can't be wrong, can they?
The beginning I liked. It is set up well, and you see flashes of brilliance by Francis Ford Coppola. There's crisp dialogue, artsy cinematography, and a simple, strong idea. A surveillance expert picks up on his listening device the plot for a murder. He even gets the date and place.
It goes downhill after that, unfortunately. The middle slows down to a snail's pace starting after everybody returns from the snooping technology show. And the end is a disaster.
A comparison between "The Conversation" and "Enemy of The State" exposes the failure of this highly overrated seventies crime flick and will help those who saw Gene Hackman's nineties movie figure out if they want to see his earlier work.
"Enemy of the State" (EOTS) was a big-budget film. "The Conversation" (TC) is such a low-budget movie.
EOTS has a lot of dialogue. TC has very little dialogue.
EOTS is packed with action. TC has very little action.
EOTS moves very quickly. TC moves ridiculously slowly.
EOTS strongly develops characters. TC doesn't. Even the main character in TC isn't developed!
EOTS has an antagonistic working relationship between two main characters--Gene Hackman and Will Smith--like many modern movies. TC has no such thing.
EOTS has cool spy tech. TC doesn't.
EOTS never lets you get bored. TC does--often.
EOTS has an exciting finish that is satisfying. TC doesn't.
1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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What a waste of money!!!!
Added 8/14/2009
Man I thought this would be an interesting movie because of Francis Ford Coppola, was I wrong. This was so boring, there was absolutely nothing interesting in this movie what so ever. If you want to see Gene Hackman doing some surveillance work just buy ENEMY OF THE STATE if you haven't already. What a dissappointment.
1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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Forget the Godfather: this is Coppola and Cazale's finest pairing.
Added 7/28/2009
The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Where Francis Ford Coppola's career as a director began to go hideously wrong is subject to a great deal of debate. Some folks say he held out until The Godfather Part III. Some blame the S. E. Hinton adaptations of the early eighties. Most settle on One from the Heart, while a few intrepid souls go as far back as Apocalypse Now and attempt to make a case that it's really not as great a movie as the rest of us know it is. In fact, one of the very few movies that has never been mentioned as the beginning of the end is The Conversation, the movie Coppola made in between the first two parts of the Godfather saga. It was mostly eclipsed by those movies in the seventies, but a small cadre of critics and Godfather fanatics kept talking about it until the rest of the world rediscovered it twenty or so years ago. It has since become a recognized classic, perched soundly in IMDB's Top 250 and TSPDT's Top 1000.
The Conversation is the story of a particularly stressful period in the life of Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a surveillance expert whose world is coming down around his ears. His longtime partner (John Cazale) has defected to his biggest competitor, his personal life is a shambles, and he thinks he heard something while on another job about setting someone up for murder. No one else is taking it seriously, so it's up to Harry to try and stop the murder himself. Harry, however, for all his skills in surveillance, is one of filmdom's most endearingly bad detectives.
You think Hackman and Cazale are enough of a draw here (and they should be; Cazale's every film is an amazing piece of work)? Try adding in Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Elizabeth McRae, and the greatest star who never was, Frederic Forrest? Even better is the script. While Coppola is well-known as a director and producer these days, back in the sixties and seventies he wrote some of the world's great screenplays (including this and the Godfather adaptations, he was responsible for the 1974 Great Gatsby adaptation as well as two other perennially-in-top-movies-lists flicks, Is Paris Burning? and Patton). Why Coppola stopped writing screenplays I don't know, and this one is evidence that he probably should have kept going. Subtle, layered, with touches of humor and suspense weaved in, The Conversation is one of the great mystery films of the seventies, and is well worth your time. **** ½
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The Conversation - 1974 Movie Worth Watching
Added 10/28/2009
Another great movie written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, A suspenseful movie from 1974 which had some great actors/actresses; Gene Hackman, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr to name a few.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Prequel to Enemy of the State
Added 9/7/2009
Francis Ford Coppola made The Conversation between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. It's not the Godfather but rather a character study that explores the morality of privacy, and for that reason it is as relevant today as when it came out just after Watergate.
A great performance by Gene Hackman, presaging his character (at least the spirit of his character) in 1998's Enemy of the State. There's an interesting early role for Harrison Ford. On the other hand, I didn't much like Cindy Williams or Frederic Forrest in it, but I suppose their characters are unlikable. Plus, what they are saying is the real focus anyway.
Young (or at least immature) viewers probably won't enjoy this movie but that doesn't mean it's not still an undiscovered gem for most. Two commentaries (including one from Coppola) make this seven dollar DVD an easy purchase.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Compared with "Enemy of the State" "The Conversation" Sucks!
Added 8/22/2009
I saw this movie after seeing "Enemy of The State" (1998). I could see that flick several more times, but could hardly finish seeing "The Conversation" (1974) once.
When I first heard of "The Conversation," I thought, 'How do you make a movie with such a boring title?' I was kind of intrigued by that. It doesn't exactly have the punch of "Enemy of the State," does it?
I also saw the rating by TCM was four stars. I wondered, 'If it's so good, how come I've never heard of it before?' I saw the high rating here on Amazon.com, too, so I decided to give it a look. The professional and amateur critics both can't be wrong, can they?
The beginning I liked. It is set up well, and you see flashes of brilliance by Francis Ford Coppola. There's crisp dialogue, artsy cinematography, and a simple, strong idea. A surveillance expert picks up on his listening device the plot for a murder. He even gets the date and place.
It goes downhill after that, unfortunately. The middle slows down to a snail's pace starting after everybody returns from the snooping technology show. And the end is a disaster.
A comparison between "The Conversation" and "Enemy of The State" exposes the failure of this highly overrated seventies crime flick and will help those who saw Gene Hackman's nineties movie figure out if they want to see his earlier work.
"Enemy of the State" (EOTS) was a big-budget film. "The Conversation" (TC) is such a low-budget movie.
EOTS has a lot of dialogue. TC has very little dialogue.
EOTS is packed with action. TC has very little action.
EOTS moves very quickly. TC moves ridiculously slowly.
EOTS strongly develops characters. TC doesn't. Even the main character in TC isn't developed!
EOTS has an antagonistic working relationship between two main characters--Gene Hackman and Will Smith--like many modern movies. TC has no such thing.
EOTS has cool spy tech. TC doesn't.
EOTS never lets you get bored. TC does--often.
EOTS has an exciting finish that is satisfying. TC doesn't.
1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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